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Monday 24 November 2014

An Unusual View of Settle Station

This view of Settle station would be impossible nowadays as industrial units occupy the area where the locomotive and railway lines were.
click to enlarge

The occasion was the naming of the locomotive Giggleswick on November 4th 1938.

The water tower is out of shot to the right of the picture.   Of interest are the weighbridge stone building behind the locomotive's tender and a couple of coal merchants' wooden huts to the right.   Settle's telephone exchange nestles among the trees behind the huts.

The locomotive Giggleswick, when based at Leeds Holbeck shed hauled express passenger trains over the Settle-Carlisle line.   It was withdrawn from service in 1962 and was cut up for scrap.

Friday 7 November 2014

On Telly in America this month. Honest.

Many moons ago we were filmed by a TV crew from Dallas.   See our posting on this Blog way-back:
Filming for American TV
Since then there have been umpteen false alarms about when it would be aired.

Ours is episode 309 and should be on GAC (Great American Country) Channel on 20th and again on 21st November.  See

for exact times.

Never thought we would appear on a TV channel in the US, least of all a channel called Great American Country!

We have no idea if the programme will be a total embarrassment  or an inspiration to the world.   Tell your friends if you are willing to take that risk in admitting you know these crazy people in the water tower.

Sunday 2 November 2014

Settle International

Many visitors admire the two storey extension at the back of the tower and some comment on the style of architecture, reminiscent of the sort of thing seen at airport terminals.

No coincidence that.   Our architect, Stuart Green's firm Commercial Systems International of Hull are very much involved with airport buildings.   Just for fun, a sign in our kitchen window takes up the theme:

This lightens the rather bland look of that aspect of the annex.   It might have been much more exciting had not our overlooked neighbours been so insistent on keeping it bland on that side.   Their loss.

Just how big a loss is emphasised by CSi's recent project for the huge sculpture in London Heathrow's Terminal 2 which emphasises CSi's incredible range and skills.

See:

When you open the link, click on the video especially.  Our main link person at CSi was Maarten Kleinhout who appears on the video - and fleetingly on our episode of Restoration Man.

Weren't we lucky  that Stuart Green was our architect and that CSi designed and made the modern components of our tower?

I think it fair to say that neither we, nor the local planners fully appreciated the skills and abilities that were being applied to our project.


click to enlarge



SLIPSTREAM, HEATHROW, TERMINAL 2

Summer in Autumn in Yorkshire

Well, it's November but the last day of October this year saw record high temperatures.

This glimpse of summer reminded me of those magical days in July when the Tour de France cycle race started here in Yorkshire.   I didn't post much about it at the time but the sun shone and the event itself exceeded all expectations.

DO have a look at this:

The Tour de Yorkshire

and marvel at the event itself centainly - but most of all the scenery and the people.

Ten hours of live Worldwide television coverage has done wonders for tourism in this part of he UK.   How lucky we are to live here.

Sound on.   Full screen.   Enjoy.